Paris Hilton is one of the most written about and photographed celebrities from the past two decades, and yet nobody really knew her story.
That’s what’s at the heart of Paris the Memoir, out now. While the world followed the exploits of the pink-obsessed, puppy-toting party girl on gossip blogs — which painted her as spoiled and vapid, a persona she admittedly leaned into — it masked the person inside who was carrying the pain of childhood trauma. Partying all night, surrounded by lots of people and loud music, all that fun kept the hotel heiress from quiet moments alone in which she’d be forced to face her past.
“I’d already been through hell and back” before even becoming famous, the Paris in Love star tells Yahoo Entertainment in an interview via Zoom.
Stories from the tome have made headlines before its March 14 release: Paris, who grew up in luxury in Bel Air and NYC, was groomed by an eighth grade teacher. She was drugged and raped at 15. She was sent to a residential treatment program from 16 to 18, where she was sexually abused. Her ex sold a tape of them having sex without her consent. She had an abortion, which became headline news when her private medical records were sold. She believed she was asexual for years because, for the aforementioned reasons, anything sexual terrified her while she was simultaneously branded a “slut” in the media.
